I decided to attend the reading of the Declaration of Independence that will be held on July 4th in Bethlehem, not for a particular political cause, but to reconnect with a truly remarkable document.The fifty-six signatures that are affixed on the document took an act of courage, as we declared our independence from England. The most interesting fact is the first vote to declare our independence by the Committee of the Whole, thirteen states, was not unanimous but was approved with a 9-3-1 vote. After the Committee of the Whole approved the document, it was time for the Congress to vote on the proposed Declaration of Independence. The final vote was 12 states voting for independence, while a single state abstained, New York, since they were not yet authorized to vote for independence.
Even in the early days, we allowed the political process and the people appointed by the various states to work out the final details and find common ground. Finding common ground does not mean giving up on your principles, but it means working together to solve problems for the common good. This common ground allowed our founding fathers to establish a remarkable form of government that is unparalleled in human history. This practice of finding common ground has been the driving principle of every great compromise in our nation history.
Today, we have lost our ability to find common ground for the greater good. We prefer to create harsh political divisions. We prefer to chastise anyone who disagrees with our opinion. We prefer to reference the Declaration of Independence to justify our position; but we conveniently forget the Declaration of Independence asked us to understand that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”. These ideas and ideals of this document have served us well for the past 236 years.